Culture

How Funny (and Banal) was Porn in the ’80s?

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[Rare behind the scenes footage from ’80s porn, shot by photographer Barbara Nitke.]

Barbara Nitke was the favorite photographer of most of the porn film directors in the ’80s, hired to shoot with her camera, not only all the hot action, but also all these funny and embarrassing moments that used to take place during the break. Her career began shortly before the end of the golden age of porn, somewhere in the early ’80s, just before the video entered our lives for good, when these films were still known for their kitsch aesthetics, for their rudimentary scenario, when porn stars acted in a caricatural manner despite (or because of) the instructions of the director.

But for Barbara Nitke, these photos are more than the chronicle of the ’80s pre-viagra male testosterone and the female failed perm. As a faculty member of the School of Visual Arts in New York, Nitke is a staunch champion of the First Amendment and freedom of speech. In 2001, she filed a lawsuit, along with the National Coalition for Sexual Freedom, challenging the Communications Decency Act, a law prohibiting the publication of obscenity on the internet. The case went to the U.S. Supreme Court and, although she lost, porn is clearly thriving, although (or because) it lost this ’80s cult, funny and yet banal character.

Πηγή: hintmag